Who We Are

Our History

Goldratt Research Labs (GRL) was founded in 2007 by Dr. Alan Barnard, on request
of Dr. Eli Goldratt, the creator of Theory of Constraints (TOC), to create a research
organization that would be a spearhead for new Theory of Constraints based research
and development to help accelerate and test the ever growing TOC body of knowledge.

Our Focus

GRL focuses on developing research partnerships with especially the more complex
private and public sector organizations to find innovative and sustainable ways
to achieve more of their goal units, in less time with the same or less resources.

We employ a robust research methodology that starts with:

Quantifying the extent and system wide consequences of problems,

Identifying and validating root cause hypotheses,

Developing viable win:win:win solutions in collaboration with key stakeholders to
identify all the necessary and sufficient changes to achieve the desired level of
performance as well as the best sequence of implementation in the form of a Strategy and Tactic tree

Testing and continuous improvement of these solutions through "proof-of-concept"
pilots.

Audit the implementation of recommended changes to pro-actively identify and overcome
unexpected implementation obstacles; and

Assist organizations and their IT partners in implementing these TOC best practices
within their IT systems.

Our Vision

Since the start of the development of Theory of Constraints over 30 years ago, there
have been thousands of successful TOC implementations in almost every industry and
application imaginable. The “Theory of Constraints Handbook”, published by McGraw
Hill in 2010, provides an overview of the incredible scope of TOC applications today.
These do not only include manufacturing, distribution and project based organizations,
but also service-based organizations, city councils, schools, hospitals and even
prisons.

We believe that despite the great successes already achieved, we are only now ready
to discover the full implication and application of managing and improving systems
holistically by managing system constraint(s), and the importance of understanding
the human aspect of such a change. Considering the continued exponential growth
in population and complexity of the world we live in, we believe that the most significant
contribution of TOC over the next 30 years will be its application to help us to
better exploit (and not waste) our scarcest resources - our finite natural resources
and on a personal level, our limited time, attention and motivation - wasted by
doing the many things we should not do and not doing the few things we should.

As a research organization, we want to contribute to advancing the application of
existing TOC knowledge to more fields and to develop new TOC knowledge to help individuals,
organizations and governments better manage these scarce and finite resources for
the benefit of all.

Meet our Team

Dr. Alan Barnard, CEO Goldratt Research Labs
South Africa

Dr. Alan Barnard is recognized as one of the leading TOC Experts in the world. For the last 15 years, he has worked with Dr. Eli Goldratt on developing new TOC knowledge and leading TOC analysis and implementations for typically large and complex organizations from both the private sector and the public sector. He has applied TOC to achieve his personal goal of helping organizations and individuals identify and unlock their inherent potential.

Dr. Barnard is CEO of Goldratt Research Labs, Director of Goldratt Group Africa, Chairman of Realization Africa, Chairman of African Phosphates and Chairman of The Odyssey Institute.

He was a founding board member and chairman of TOCICO (Theory of Constraints Certification Organization) from 2003-2005, currently serves as chair for the TOCICO Business Strategy Certification committee and received the TOCICO Lifetime Membership award in 2006.

LARRY PERLOV, VP GOLDRATT RESEARCH LABS – AMERICA
Boston, USA

Larry is a VP and co-founder of the Goldratt Research Labs, with regional responsibility for North and Latin America. Larry is also managing partner at Illumiti – a global niche SAP consulting firm, and leading mining and natural resources solution provider in North America. Larry has extensive experience in how to implement SAP in a way that will achieve step-change improvement in operational and financial performance by capitalizing on best practices such as Theory of Constraints.

Larry has worked closely with Dr, Alan Barnard since 2005 on various large and complex projects around the globe, especially those where GRL helped customers implement TOC with SAP and/or use TOC’s Critical Chain Project management solution to implement SAP faster and at lower cost. Larry has been working in the SAP space as a logistics expert, solution architect and program manager for 20 years; and in the TOC space since 1992.

STEPHEN CASEY, VP GOLDRATT RESEARCH LABS – ASIA
Singapore

Stephen is an experienced global mining executive with strong background and successful track record in delivering complex transformation programs, capital projects and business optimisation projects. Stephen is passionate about removing complexity from systems, and building focus and clarity to improve the performance of operational businesses and projects. He has extensive experience in process design and optimization in Mining and Natural Resources.

Stephen has delivered many successful programs of work by applying the fundamentals of TOC for Operations, Distribution and Projects. He has also worked extensively with the TOC based Logical Thinking Processes, which provide a foundation for a systems thinking approach to complex problem solving. Stephen worked closely with Dr. Alan Barnard since 2012 with focus on embedding TOC best practises into BHP Billiton’s Group Business Management Systems and applying a TOC approach to improving productivity in projects and service functions and recently joined GRL as VP with regional account responsibility for Asia.

DAN KLARMAN, MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
Israel

Dan’s focus is on leading organizational improvement processes by facilitating Theory of Constraints (TOC) thinking processes and implementing breakthrough solutions with a clear focus on adding measurable bottom-line value (in whichever way it is defined). Dan specializes in integrating organizational changes with the appropriate IT and BI support and has done significant research into supply chain network behavior and advanced statistics in relation to improving validity of simulated data. He loves developing solutions based on a combination of fact-based data analysis, intimate knowledge of advanced management methodologies coupled with simulation-based fine-tuning. Before joining the Goldratt Research Labs team, he spent 10 years doing R&D in High Tech with specific focus on numerical algorithms and simulation development. Dan holds an M.Sc. in Physics with honours from Tel Aviv University, is an Avraham Goldratt Institute “Jonah” graduate and also certified Odyssey Program facilitator.

DR. ANDREY MALYKHANOV, SIMULATION EXPERT
Russia

Andrey is one of the leading experts in applying simulation and data analysis techniques to solve complex and challenging business tasks, especially in logistics, inventory management and production. Andrey has 5 years of experience in business consulting and 7 years of experience in practical simulation. In 2011 Andrey was awarded a Ph.D. degree in simulation. Andrey is an expert in using AnyLogic, the preferred simulation modeling software used by Goldratt Research Labs and has worked with his experienced simulation and data analytics team with Dr. Alan Barnard on a few large and complex simulation projects to show for example the benefits that Theory of Constraints can bring when applied, not only to links within a supply chain, but to optimize the whole supply chain.

Dr. Filippo Pescara, TOC Expert
Italy

Filippo Pescara is a doctor in electronic engineering (from University of Ancona) and he holds an MBA in managerial engineering from Polytechnic of Milan. His interest in TOC started in 1993 when he read the goal for the first time. He’s a TOC practitioner since 1995.

Filipo engages in both consultancy and educational projects. He works on holistic projects in medium sized companies in Italy and cooperates with industrial associations and universities holding conferences, educational projects and seminars.

In 1999 he was the Italian facilitator of the GSP in a class composed by different companies in Bologna. He taught TOC operations and logistics for two years as an adjunct professor at the University of Ancona (Italy) in the academic years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. He is a consulting partner of Inherent Simplicity since January 2008.

In 2011 Dr. Alan Barnard asked him, on the advice of Eli Goldratt who knew about his research and developments in the field of Strategy & Tactics Trees and the Thinking Processes (he presented some of his findings and results to Eli on May 2010), to be part of the Goldratt Research Labs.

Dr. Barry Morgenstern, TOC Expert
Connecticut, United States

Barry holds a PhD in Special Education and Applied Behavior Analysis. He is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who trains teachers, parents, and therapists to work with children with autism and other developmental disorders. He has 20 years experience in a wide variety of settings and is currently the CT Director of Research for The Institute of Professional Practice.

His current research interest focuses on testing the extent that the Theory of Constraints can improve services for children with autism.

He has worked with TOC at the International Odyssey Program, as well as applications for the State of Utah.

Paula Weyler, TOC Expert
California, United States

Paula began her journey into Theory of Constraints in 2007 as a TOC implementation manager for a medium-sized custom manufacturing firm in the US. Working with Goldratt Consulting, she led a team to implement S-DBR in an environment that required the testing and development of new TOC knowledge. After securing dramatic improvements in operational performance, which yielded both on time delivery and quality over 95%, she was promoted to VP of Sales and Marketing for the firm. In this role, she used TOC sales processes to double sales in 3 years.

During this time, she also participated in the annual TOC Odyssey program to apply the Thinking Processes to the personal lives of participants.

Paula is passionate about using TOC to dramatically improve both her clients’ lives and the performance of their organizations.

In 2012 Paula joined Goldratt Research Labs, one of the leading organizations in developing and testing new TOC knowledge. In this role she has facilitated training and improvement initiatives with organizations that include the State of Utah, Random House Publishing, and SAP. Her training workshops help clients realize their visions for significant growth and improvement, while creating harmony in the organization. She also facilitates new development, marketing, training and implementation of Harmony Software.

Zelle (Gizelle) le Roux, TOC Expert,
Melbourne, Australia

Zelle holds a BEng degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering (Cum Laude) and is a multi-skilled problem solver who relishes the challenge of finding simple, yet elegant solutions for improving complex systems. She is a TOCICO certified TOC practitioner in Supply Chain Logistics and she holds a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Cum Laude). Zelle has extensive experience in using Theory of Constraints and simulation modeling to help organizations improve productivity in the manufacturing and distribution environment and in using simulation models in strategic planning and management training. She is also Microsoft Excel and Harmony Strategy & Tactic Software super-user.

Zelle prides herself on delivering excellence, living passionately and making a meaningful contribution to the people and organisations that she engages with.

ALBERT VISSER, TOC AND MAINTENANCE SPECIALIST
South Africa

Albert Visser is a director of the Goldratt Group in South Africa and the Managing Director for Strategic Corporate Assessment Systems, providing maintenance strategy development tools and maintenance Inventory decision-making tools. Albert has worked closely with Dr. Alan Barnard as part of the GRL team since 2008 on various complex projects in the supply chain optimization, SAP implementation and maintenance management fields. Albert is a TOCICO certified TOC Expert with over 10 years experience in doing TOC implementations around the world. He holds a BSc in Engineering and a MDP from Unisa.

Elsabe Jean Pieters (Elbie). Pr Eng(Industrial), PMP
South Africa

Elbie has spent the majority of her career in the FMCG environment in various senior manufacturing and IT management positions in leading FMCG companies such as SABMiller and PG Group that gave her the opportunity to manage some of the largest Manufacturing IT projects and managing and maintaining a few of the biggest production and packaging lines in the industry. During her time as Manufacturing manager, she also acquired extensive technical and planned maintenance best practices experience in for example the latest manufacturing and packaging technologies.

Elbie has a Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), is registered as a Certified Professional Engineer at Engineering Council of South Africa, is a PMI accredited Project Management Professional and has a Blackbelt in Six Sigma. Over her career, she has had the opportunity to apply Theory of Constraints best practices and thinking in many production, distribution and maintenance environments. For example, in 2009 she had the opportunity to lead a large TOC implementation project for a major motor component manufacturing plant working with Dr. Alan Barnard from Goldratt Research Labs, where they achieved a 50% reduction in Working Capital while increasing availability and throughput substantially resulting in a 90% reduction in order backlog within just 4 months.

Elbie recently joined Goldratt Research Labs and enjoys working on very complex problems around the globe, working with integrated teams and using a structured approach and tool set and her project management background to analyze systems, quantify improvement potential and develop and implement best practices and systems that add “Real” value.

Do you manage a COMPLEX environment and are you under pressure to DO MORE in LESS
TIME with LESS RESOURCES?

Are you interested in discovering whether there could be a simple, robust solution
for achieving and sustaining a step-change improvement in such an environment?

IF you answered YES and YES... you are welcome to contact Dr. Alan Barnard
to discuss a possible research partnership with Goldratt Research Labs